Here are a few more because i can only get 5 to a blog. we´ve taken more photos since then but i´ll leave anthea to upload some to.

So i´m a bit behind on blogging because i~ve hardly seen the internet in the last 5 days, i´ve been in the middle of Brazil, in the Pantanal Wetlands. Other then the mosquitos it was a fantastic experience. The mosquitos were unavoidable, i don´t think they ever got word that they´re not meant to like deet cos they´ll bite you anyway, my last count was 60 bites. i think Katrina is worse, anthea has quite a few but hers aren´t itchy and for some reason they didn´t touch claire.

When we first got to Pantanal i was a bit apprehensive cos it was incredibly hot and humid and we´d been travelling for about 21hours so we were exhausted, no one spoke english and we were going to be sleeping in hammocks for four nights. However there was nothing to worry about, later that evening we met our guide Levy who spoke english (as well as about 5 other languages) was really cool and he explained how to camp worked. There are 2 woman at the camps who spend all their time just cooking and cleaning, couldn´t believe how hard they worked and that night we had a massive meal, there was rice, noodles, a beef stew, veges and salads, we were starving so it was all amazing, Every lunch and dinner we had approximately the same food but they´d usually add one new thing and we didn´t care cos it was good food and it was the best we had eaten since we arrived in south america,. After dinner we went to bed and getting to sleep in a hammock was not an issue at all, i was out within 5mins and slept right through. the bedroom was really cool, it was above the dining area and was just a room filled with hammocks, its hard to describe but i might upload a photo at some point.

Our first activity in Pantanal was a boat ride through a muddy looking river, we saw a lot of species of birds and heaps of caymans (crocodiles) then after about 20mins we beached up and Levi suggested we go for a swim, we assumed he was kidding cos the water is full of caymans and piranhas but he wasn´t so we decided that he must believe its safe enough and we got in. and it was fine, every once in a while you´d feel something touch you and recoil but then you just tell yourself its a log. After getting out one of the Aussies showed us his bleeding toe and thumb, he had 2 piranha bites and they´re pretty vicious. apparently once they smell blood it attracts more hence why he got 2 bites. So turns out it wasn´t particularly safe but we avoided injury.

We headed back to the lodge and each day between the morning and afternoon activity we have time to relax and do our own thing which for us was napping in the outdoor hammocks. It´s so relaxing but that day the heat was extreme, and we just couldn´t cool down or stop sweating. We didn´t know how we would cope with our afternoon horseride in that heat but fortunately it clouded over just as we headed out. Unfortunately thaty cloud turned into a storm and we got saturated, it was actually a welcome relief after that heat. A lightning bolt cracked right near us and our guide horse freaked, although the horse, Chocolate was loco, as our guide put it. all the other horses behaved. i had a great horse, when ever there was room in front of him or we were lagging behind he would break into a trot, i´d never gone faster than walking on a horse so it was soo much fun!! i managed to get right to the front of the group. the rain didn´t last long and by the time we reached the stables it was over. that evening we played card games with a bunch of australians and then went for a night safari to see if we could find any wildlife. Levy promised us we´d either see everything or nothing, and we were closer to everything. We we in a truck with seats up the back and we saw 5 foxes, a family of Capyvaras and hundreds of caymans, as levy shone the torch over a lake we just saw thousands of yellow eyes shining in the darkness, it was crazy!! also saw some deer and bird as well as general farm animals. Next day we went on the same safari trip but in daylight but this time it was less fun as we didn´t see anything and it was pouring with rain. Levy decided to ride in the cab with the driver rather than face the elements up the back with us. Poor Matt, one of the australians, was wearing just jeans and a t shirt and he looked so cold wet and miserable. we pulled over after about 40mins of driving and decided to walk into the forest to find some wildlife, we had to walk silently as to not scare anything away and we saw 2 armadillos and male and female howler monkies. It was awesome, especially seeing everynight at camp we can hear the howler monkies across the river and they make such a bizarre and creepy noise. but we could nver see them. On the way out we found the bones of a cow in the forest, Levy said a snake would have bitten the cow and killed it then the vultures picked the bones clean.

we headed back to camp and said farewell to our aussie mates, it sucked that they were leaving cos the newest arrivals were all english and mainly kept to themselves. Didn´t matter though cos we all got on well with all the guides and ended up having an awesome night! For 10 reais (about 8NZD) we bought a bottle of cashasa (local spirit) and big wolf made us a massive cocktail in a bucket! he used 3/4 of the bottle and it was really potent! We shared it between us and then the guys taught us how to dance. It was really cool that all the locals know how to dance, they are taught in their tribes when they are young. Paulo got a bit frustrated with me as I had no natural ability so it took me a while to work out the moves but i got there eventually. it was such a hot night, so everyone was a bit sweaty but we had learnt to ignore it. It was really awesome dancing away to portugese music. and then we played pool, i partnered with Carlos, and i had been a intimidated by him previously cos he´s a big guy and people had been saying he´s not a nice guide, but that was crap cos once i started talking to him he was so lovely. We made a good pool team and I played quite well, we won a few games. Overall it was a great night and us 4 girls got on really well with the guides after that. Oh also that day Levy made us each a necklace which he was really talented at.

On the final day we went piranha fishing, Claire caught two, Katrina ne, and i caught one plus another fish with was really tiny. the caymans came right up to the bank where we were fishing cos they wanted the piranhas and they managed to get a couple we threw back cos we didn~t want to eat the,]m. then we literally walked 10 metres up stream of where we were fishing and went swimming. it was kinda scarily but very refreshing and i was just keen to get under water to avoid mosquitos which i considered to be more of a threat than piranhas. After Anthea and Levy got out of the water, levy threw his fishing line in the water right where we were swimming and pulled out a piranha so we were definately surrounded by them, i´m just glad the water isn´t clear. Levy told Anthea that piranhas always swim in schools of between 140 and 2000 and a group of 2000 could devour a cow in about a minute, so i~m hoping we were only amonst 140. Either way we came out unscathed. that afternoon we took heaps of photos with all the guides in the hammocks and said goodbye then packed up out stuff and sadly lelft the camp.

As we were driving away i saw a cayman on it back, clearly dead, and about 5 vultures surrounding it. so after a 40min drive we were on the main road and the mozzies were worse than ever we just couldn´t get away from them. about 20mins later our minibus arrived and we had a very bumpy trip back to Campo Grande, from there we had 2 hours to arrange a pickup, shower eat dinner and find food for the bus, which was very hard, then we started our 26hour journey which was meant to be 24 but our bus driver kept stopping for reasons we didn´t understand, We were in sao Paulo for 2.5 hours when it should have only been about 20mins, someone threw up in the bus, we slept on and off overall it wasn´t much fun. All the clothes in our pack are dirty and/or wet and so we were feeling pretty crap by the time we arrived in rio. because we were late our pickup had left but thanks to an incredibly nice guy who spoke english we managed to call the hostel and get our driver to come back. my first impression of Ro was that it smelt nasty but i was happy cos far in the distance i could see Christ the redeemer. After 35 hours of travel we had finally reached our destination. But the hostel wasn´t quite as we expected it looked smaller and we down a narrow little street. I got into a big argument with the guy at the hostel cos he was saying he didn´t have my booking, i managed to win that argument and then we were shown our room which went through a different groups room which means climbing over their stuff and we found the bed weren´t so much bunks but just three beds precariously balanced on top of each other. i was on the top bunk above claire and every time the bunk moved i was worried the thing would collaspe and crush claire. fortunately this was not the case and later we discovered they have a rod going through the legs which makes it more secure but not ideal.

This morning at the hostel after my ice cold shower we went down to an amazing spread for breakfast, it was all free and we felt the breakfast really redeemed what otherwise felt like a crap hostel. The hostel also looks alot nicer in daylight.

We still haven´t really seen Rio, just the laundromat and the internet cafe but were going out to explore now.

Man that was hard work, there is no way i~m spellchecking it. I feel like i´ve missed so much, i´m sure my next blog will be shorter.

Luv Nicky